# What do Indian employers actually ask for? SAP, ahead of Java and Python.

*Figures as of 5 October 2026 · counted from employers' own job boards · https://avagama.co/openings/blog/what-skills-indian-employers-ask-for/*

**Short answer:** Across live Indian job adverts, SAP is named more often than any other technology we track: 3,997 postings. Java follows at 2,839 and Python at 2,243. In the United States the order is different, and SAP drops to sixth.

## India

Live roles open to India whose advert names the technology at least twice. Counting a single mention would pick up every passing reference, so a term has to be stated more than once to count as a requirement.

<!--chart: India: live postings naming each technology-->
| Technology | Postings |
| --- | ---: |
| SAP | 3,997 |
| Java | 2,839 |
| Python | 2,243 |
| AWS | 2,058 |
| Azure | 1,833 |
| SQL | 1,654 |
| CI/CD | 1,549 |
| Large language models | 1,240 |
| Machine learning | 915 |
| ServiceNow | 759 |
| Salesforce | 717 |
| Microservices | 703 |

## United States

| Technology | Postings |
| --- | ---: |
| Python | 1,414 |
| AWS | 1,224 |
| SQL | 976 |
| CI/CD | 942 |
| Azure | 927 |
| Salesforce | 882 |
| Machine learning | 798 |
| SAP | 788 |
| Linux | 606 |
| Kubernetes | 596 |
| Firmware | 533 |
| Large language models | 508 |

## The SAP result is the interesting one

Enterprise software rarely shows up in conversations about what to learn. The conversation is about languages and frameworks, and it is largely downstream of what people enjoy writing about.

Hiring does not work that way. A very large part of Indian technology employment is enterprise implementation and support for companies that run their business on SAP, and those roles are advertised continuously because the installed base never stops needing people. Nobody writes a Hacker News thread about ABAP. Four thousand Indian postings want it anyway.

ServiceNow at 759 and Salesforce at 717 are the same story in smaller form. Platform specialists are in steady demand and almost invisible in the discourse.

## Where the two markets differ

Python leads the American list and sits third in India, where Java still outranks it. The Indian lead for Java reflects the enterprise and services base: large Java estates are maintained for decades, and maintenance is where the headcount is.

Large language models at 1,240 Indian postings against 508 American ones is the figure most likely to surprise, and it should be read carefully. It does not mean India is doing more AI work than America in absolute terms. It means the share of advertised Indian roles mentioning it is higher, which is what you would expect when a large services industry is racing to re-skill its bench towards whatever clients are currently buying.

## Read these as mentions, not as a market

Three honest limits.

A fixed vocabulary cannot find what is not in it. We track a few hundred technologies that candidates actually type into a search box. A technology we do not track scores zero here and that is a fact about our list, not about the market.

Mentions are not jobs. An advert naming AWS and Kubernetes and Python counts in three rows. The rows overlap heavily and do not sum to anything meaningful.

And an advert naming a technology twice may still be describing the team rather than the job. We require two mentions to cut the worst of this, which removes passing references and keeps real requirements. It is a blunt rule that works more often than not.

## Method

Each advert is read from the employer's own board and matched against a curated vocabulary of technologies. A term counts for a posting when the advert states it at least twice, which distinguishes a requirement from a mention. Phrases are matched as adjacent words, so "machine learning" does not match an advert about a learning mindset in a machine shop.

Counted on 5 October 2026 across live roles whose advert text we hold. Each posting was last re-read from its board on or before 29 September 2026.

## Common questions

### What is the most in-demand technology skill in India?

SAP, named in 3,997 live Indian job adverts, ahead of Java at 2,839 and Python at 2,243. Enterprise platform work is a much larger share of Indian technology hiring than online discussion suggests.

### Is Java still in demand in India?

Yes, and it outranks Python there, which is the reverse of the American ordering. Large Java estates in enterprise and services firms are maintained for years and that maintenance carries headcount.

### Do these counts mean there are that many jobs for each skill?

No. A single advert naming several technologies is counted under each of them, so the rows overlap and should not be added together. Treat them as relative demand rather than as job counts.